Now granted, I am not necessarily thrilled that Republican rising star Governor Chris Christie (NJ) filed an application to take Federal money from the Department of Education–which would have had the effect of making New Jersey more dependent on the Federal Government in choosing curriculum and “guidelines” for what “should” be taught (Das Kapital, maybe?).

It also sends a mixed message to the states and citizens who are determined that ridding ourselves of these huge redundant bureaucracies is the ONLY way we will ever get to full solvency and to dig ourselves out of this enormous black hole of debt we’ve been tricked into.

The Department of Education has only been around since the Jimmy Carter Administration (1979). How in the world did we ever manage to get educated without it? Albert Einstein didn’t have the DOE? Lincoln didn’t have the DOE? Shocking. It is a fact that the average student aptitude on the critical skills required to function successfully in a complex world was MUCH higher before the DOE.

Therefore–on this issue–yes, I am disappointed that Christie has seemingly distanced himself from the sound Federalist principles and budgetary discernment which got him elected in the bluest of blue states. I see it as a strategic error…

But with that said, every time Chris Christie opens his mouth it is so refreshing and so unlike most politicians that it is really, really difficult not to see him rising to even greater heights someday:

I would love to see someone like Christie get into the 2012 Presidential Derby and to finish off the backstabbing aw shucks –Mike Huckabee–once and for all.

I want to see Gingrich, Christie, Ryan and possibly Jindal as the front runners; hell anybody except McCain, Huckabee or any other RINO… Just because he tried to get federal dollars for his State doesn’t make him a pariah–he just needs a little more schooling as to how unproductive and wasteful the Federal DOE is.

Meanwhile, the ability Christie has to be able to speak so brilliantly to an ad lib question, even concerning a subject you don’t agree with him on–my friends that is pure gold. We could use a guy like that in higher office.